ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2026
The relationship between depression symptoms and cortisol levels in adolescents: the role of somatic symptoms and cognitive function.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Background: The relationship between clinical features of depression and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity in adolescents remains poorly understood. This study examined the main and interactive effects of depressive severity, cognitive function, and somatic symptoms on cortisol levels in adolescent depression. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 138 adolescents. Based on their scores on the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-24) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), participants were divided into three groups: the depression with somatic symptoms group (DP group), the depression without somatic symptoms group (DW group), and a normal control group. To examine the main and interactive associations of clinical variables on cortisol levels, a general linear model (GLM) and simple slope analysis were employed. Results: Although bivariate correlations and group comparisons revealed no direct associations between cortisol levels and clinical indicators, the GLM identified significant interaction effects: PHQ-15 × HAMD-24 ( Conclusion: The association between somatic symptoms and cortisol in adolescents is differentially moderated by depression severity and cognitive function: a significant negative association was observed under conditions of low-to-moderate depression and low cognitive function, whereas a non-significant positive trend appeared when both were high. These hypothesis-generating findings require replication in larger, prospective studies.
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